My favorite album from Kanye West's discography was Graduation. It was filled with so many great songs and the album had this youthful cheery vibe to it that was completely unmatched. So many of the tracks fill me with joy, and it's an unmatched classic even now. To this day I still can't decide my favorite song from it. Champion, Flashing Lights, The Glory, I Wonder, etc. There's just too many good ones. Mr. West delivered something unforgettable, and I'll be enjoying it for years to come.
AI: The Somnium FIles is nothing like Graduation. Nirvana Initiative will be nothing like Graduation. This franchise will never be anything like Graduation.
AI: The Somnium FIles is nothing like Graduation. Nirvana Initiative will be nothing like Graduation. This franchise will never be anything like Graduation.
This review contains spoilers
Losing the thread. A story is woven sentence to sentence, scene to scene. Every piece flows to the next, not just as a sequence of events, but as a network. The attachment to, and understanding of, the cast of characters grows and develops, building into the tapestry that forms a greater narrative, the summation of every detail that can’t be captured in a single line of events. If one string breaks, the greater work may survive, but with each loose end comes a greater risk of everything falling apart.
The introductory thread is that of the protagonist, Kaname Date, being sent to investigate the scene of a murder. The victim is the mother of Okiura Mizuki, Date’s surrogate daughter, discovered at the scene frightened and clutching the weapon that killed her mother. The first Psync of the game, where Date enters someone’s “Somnium” dream realm to see what they’ve experienced, is to learn what happened and help Mizuki overcome the trauma she just experienced. For the audience, it’s plain to see that the focus of this game will be on family, with Mizuki being at the center of it all. One on side, there’s her new father figure Date, and on the other, her murdered mother and her biological father, the prime suspect. Watching her mature over the course of this extended family drama is the central thread, the one that runs from the intro to the very end.
That’s not true though. Mizuki isn’t the focus of the narrative. In fact, she’s actually a very small part of it. Well, unless her route is the first one that ends up being chosen, in which case it will feel much more significant. The story branches depending on certain decisions made in Somnium investigations, with each branch focusing on a different character. In fact, the focus on singular characters is so stubborn that the overall narrative progression takes a backseat, going down dead ends that don’t end up tying into the central plot progression in any significant way. The threads are intact, but they’re frayed and loose, barely clinging to each other at all. The loose connection that barely holds it together is from Spike Chunsoft’s favorite subject matter other than murder, parallel universes. Each thread reveals a few details, and if players reach a point where they would need information given in one of these parallel paths, the game locks progress until it’s completed. As to why this happens or the mechanics of it all… it’s completely unexplained. Unlike the Zero Escape series which also has parallel universes and locked paths, this game uses them as a plot convenience rather than a narrative hook, a sloppy way to patch up holes and get Date into the situations that would make each route different from the last. They’re only referenced to help bridge those gaps in writing, then never discussed again.
So, by the point where the audience understands what’s going on, what are they holding onto? Mizuki’s thread may work out if players happen to choose it first, but maybe the character drama jerked into a different focus instead. Maybe their path was a developmental dead-end, or maybe it was one that revealed the less-savory aspects of the protagonist’s character. Date’s goofy sense of humor shines early on, and the way he tries to look cool in spite of his obvious care for Mizuki can be charming, but he also has the quirk of being completely obsessed with pornography. Not just that, he sexually harasses a couple different characters, tanking any hope of likability. That’s on top of his abusive actions as a police officer, like invading the minds of people without their consent, and bemoaning how his subjects can’t be detained afterwards because he never had a warrant for any of this in the first place. The ethics, or lack thereof, in this situation are never addressed, so players don’t have a likable protagonist to latch onto. They also don’t have a secondary character like Mizuki to focus on, since the cast, and even the motivations, of characters in each path can be totally different. The only possible choice to fill the central role is of the titular AI, Aiba, who serves as Date’s partner. While she has some good moments, she also has no arc. She starts out as a tsundere who clearly has an affection for Date, and by the end of the story, that doesn’t change. The two have some nice banter, but it never grows or develops in any meaningful way, there’s no running thread.
In the end, that’s what The Somnium Files ends up being: a pile of frayed threads that only connect in the loosest of ways. The awkward stitching of coincidence, parallel universes, and plot conveniences knot promising ideas into a useless ball of information, pointless to get invested in when it’s being moved by such unintelligible forces. The drama is so rough that most characters end up unlikable, and the investigation gameplay is of such uneven quality that it’s hardly worth mentioning, other than marveling at how unimaginatively it presents the realm of dreams, often just reusing locations with a few exaggerated elements. Appropriately enough, it all just feels like a bad dream in itself, like there was a story with nice characters, a theme of family, and a logical presentation which was then distorted with exaggerations and a lack of conscious direction. Once it’s over, it’s almost possible to imagine how it all should be, to pick up the pieces and tie the threads back together, but as the game reminds us, there’s a wide gap between the realm of imagination and how things really are.
The introductory thread is that of the protagonist, Kaname Date, being sent to investigate the scene of a murder. The victim is the mother of Okiura Mizuki, Date’s surrogate daughter, discovered at the scene frightened and clutching the weapon that killed her mother. The first Psync of the game, where Date enters someone’s “Somnium” dream realm to see what they’ve experienced, is to learn what happened and help Mizuki overcome the trauma she just experienced. For the audience, it’s plain to see that the focus of this game will be on family, with Mizuki being at the center of it all. One on side, there’s her new father figure Date, and on the other, her murdered mother and her biological father, the prime suspect. Watching her mature over the course of this extended family drama is the central thread, the one that runs from the intro to the very end.
That’s not true though. Mizuki isn’t the focus of the narrative. In fact, she’s actually a very small part of it. Well, unless her route is the first one that ends up being chosen, in which case it will feel much more significant. The story branches depending on certain decisions made in Somnium investigations, with each branch focusing on a different character. In fact, the focus on singular characters is so stubborn that the overall narrative progression takes a backseat, going down dead ends that don’t end up tying into the central plot progression in any significant way. The threads are intact, but they’re frayed and loose, barely clinging to each other at all. The loose connection that barely holds it together is from Spike Chunsoft’s favorite subject matter other than murder, parallel universes. Each thread reveals a few details, and if players reach a point where they would need information given in one of these parallel paths, the game locks progress until it’s completed. As to why this happens or the mechanics of it all… it’s completely unexplained. Unlike the Zero Escape series which also has parallel universes and locked paths, this game uses them as a plot convenience rather than a narrative hook, a sloppy way to patch up holes and get Date into the situations that would make each route different from the last. They’re only referenced to help bridge those gaps in writing, then never discussed again.
So, by the point where the audience understands what’s going on, what are they holding onto? Mizuki’s thread may work out if players happen to choose it first, but maybe the character drama jerked into a different focus instead. Maybe their path was a developmental dead-end, or maybe it was one that revealed the less-savory aspects of the protagonist’s character. Date’s goofy sense of humor shines early on, and the way he tries to look cool in spite of his obvious care for Mizuki can be charming, but he also has the quirk of being completely obsessed with pornography. Not just that, he sexually harasses a couple different characters, tanking any hope of likability. That’s on top of his abusive actions as a police officer, like invading the minds of people without their consent, and bemoaning how his subjects can’t be detained afterwards because he never had a warrant for any of this in the first place. The ethics, or lack thereof, in this situation are never addressed, so players don’t have a likable protagonist to latch onto. They also don’t have a secondary character like Mizuki to focus on, since the cast, and even the motivations, of characters in each path can be totally different. The only possible choice to fill the central role is of the titular AI, Aiba, who serves as Date’s partner. While she has some good moments, she also has no arc. She starts out as a tsundere who clearly has an affection for Date, and by the end of the story, that doesn’t change. The two have some nice banter, but it never grows or develops in any meaningful way, there’s no running thread.
In the end, that’s what The Somnium Files ends up being: a pile of frayed threads that only connect in the loosest of ways. The awkward stitching of coincidence, parallel universes, and plot conveniences knot promising ideas into a useless ball of information, pointless to get invested in when it’s being moved by such unintelligible forces. The drama is so rough that most characters end up unlikable, and the investigation gameplay is of such uneven quality that it’s hardly worth mentioning, other than marveling at how unimaginatively it presents the realm of dreams, often just reusing locations with a few exaggerated elements. Appropriately enough, it all just feels like a bad dream in itself, like there was a story with nice characters, a theme of family, and a logical presentation which was then distorted with exaggerations and a lack of conscious direction. Once it’s over, it’s almost possible to imagine how it all should be, to pick up the pieces and tie the threads back together, but as the game reminds us, there’s a wide gap between the realm of imagination and how things really are.
I think this game has the best ending of all time
Moments of greatness and intrigue cut off at the knees by needlessly juvenile and cringe inducing jokes.
So the premise to this game is great. You play Kaname Date, a police officer working for a department that specializes in diving into suspects subconsciousness to try to learn the truth. One night you are called to a grisly murder that sets off a chain of events as you investigate further. The gameplay to this backdrop is split into 3 main parts all of which have ups and downs:
The visual novel section - Most of the game is spent visiting areas talking to characters, asking questions to lead further on the investigation. A lot of the characters are pretty good (I especially liked Aiba and Mizuki) while some are pretty bad (intentional or not Ota is an insufferable weasel) and the localization and voice acting along with this is superb. Each character's voice fits them perfectly and I thought the performances were really good. While in these locations you look through Date's eyes and can move the camera around highlighting objects getting descriptions and lines I quite liked (Does get old revisiting areas with little new). So all good? The problem is the game is obsessed with throwing in terrible sexual innuendos, puns and other cringe humour, often at seemingly completely inappropriate moments and characters. It constantly wants to stick a spike in it's own wheel killing immersion and it gains nothing from it.
The action section - Every so often in the story there are mini quick time event scenes with shoot outs as your investigation progresses. These moments are absolutely destroyed by the above mentioned issue in that they are meant to be serious moments of danger but no, everyone is distracted by porno mags. It's so painful I rolled my eyes 360 degrees in my skull. It wasn't funny or clever once, by the fifth time I was actually angry by it.
The Puzzle sections - While diving into people's minds they play out like a surreal puzzle as you try and bump your way through. Many of them are full of great imagination. The issue is they play out entirely in a trial and error scenario with timers to complete and random penalties or boosters earned on each action. Due to the nature of a surreal dream there is no logic to it meaning you bumble about hoping to choose the right option on random objects. It just feels like the idea is great but needs refining to actually be fun.
I guess that's my main issue with this game just being great ideas but the execution never lands. The writer seems like a 13 year old horny boy and a grizzled divorced father at the same time. The premise is great but the puzzles feel annoying more than fun etc. All that said I enjoyed so many aspects of the plot, characters and art that I saw it through to every ending, a couple of which I genuinely found moving so it was worth it in some ways, It just could have been so much greater.
+ Story premise is great.
+ Some nice art.
+ Great voice acting and presentation.
- Juvenile humour constantly ruins pacing and story moments.
- Seriously why is it so cringey?
- Trial and error puzzle sections aren't as fun as they should be.
So the premise to this game is great. You play Kaname Date, a police officer working for a department that specializes in diving into suspects subconsciousness to try to learn the truth. One night you are called to a grisly murder that sets off a chain of events as you investigate further. The gameplay to this backdrop is split into 3 main parts all of which have ups and downs:
The visual novel section - Most of the game is spent visiting areas talking to characters, asking questions to lead further on the investigation. A lot of the characters are pretty good (I especially liked Aiba and Mizuki) while some are pretty bad (intentional or not Ota is an insufferable weasel) and the localization and voice acting along with this is superb. Each character's voice fits them perfectly and I thought the performances were really good. While in these locations you look through Date's eyes and can move the camera around highlighting objects getting descriptions and lines I quite liked (Does get old revisiting areas with little new). So all good? The problem is the game is obsessed with throwing in terrible sexual innuendos, puns and other cringe humour, often at seemingly completely inappropriate moments and characters. It constantly wants to stick a spike in it's own wheel killing immersion and it gains nothing from it.
The action section - Every so often in the story there are mini quick time event scenes with shoot outs as your investigation progresses. These moments are absolutely destroyed by the above mentioned issue in that they are meant to be serious moments of danger but no, everyone is distracted by porno mags. It's so painful I rolled my eyes 360 degrees in my skull. It wasn't funny or clever once, by the fifth time I was actually angry by it.
The Puzzle sections - While diving into people's minds they play out like a surreal puzzle as you try and bump your way through. Many of them are full of great imagination. The issue is they play out entirely in a trial and error scenario with timers to complete and random penalties or boosters earned on each action. Due to the nature of a surreal dream there is no logic to it meaning you bumble about hoping to choose the right option on random objects. It just feels like the idea is great but needs refining to actually be fun.
I guess that's my main issue with this game just being great ideas but the execution never lands. The writer seems like a 13 year old horny boy and a grizzled divorced father at the same time. The premise is great but the puzzles feel annoying more than fun etc. All that said I enjoyed so many aspects of the plot, characters and art that I saw it through to every ending, a couple of which I genuinely found moving so it was worth it in some ways, It just could have been so much greater.
+ Story premise is great.
+ Some nice art.
+ Great voice acting and presentation.
- Juvenile humour constantly ruins pacing and story moments.
- Seriously why is it so cringey?
- Trial and error puzzle sections aren't as fun as they should be.
Mizuki Okiura says gay rights and so should you
this is by no means a perfect game. but it is a perfect game. if you get it you get it
AI: The Somnnium files é um jogo que acabei batendo o olho quando estava começando a jogar Visual Novels, e como um amante de mistérios, ainda mais os famigerados ''Murder Mysteries'' somado com meu interesse ao estilo de narrativa que a mídia proporciona, foi um jogo que imediatamente ganhou minha atenção. Pena que infelizmente não tinha acesso a ele por um tempo, já que o Xbox e jogos japoneses não andavam de mãos dadas, mas felizmente nos últimos anos, Phil Spencer começou a bater nas portas de diversas publishers com a mala na mão e vários jogos indísponiveis no console tiveram seu lançamento, e direto no Game Pass. A primeira ''atacada'' foi a Spike, que viria a trazer vários de seus titúlos na plataforma, e o primeiro anunciado foi este, e não deu outra, iniciei no mesmo dia.
AI é uma visual novel com seu maior diferencial sendo o uso de modelos e cenários totalmente em 3D, com direito a várias cutscenes. Pelos cenários serem em 3D, eles funcionam como um point and click tradicional onde interagimos com o cenário em busca de pistas e interagimos com os personagens em tela, nada de novo ai. Após algum tempo somos introduzidos a grande mecânica de gameplay do jogo, o Somnium. Alguns não gostam e acham os puzzles maçantes, já eu acho absurdamente criativo. Somniums seriam o mundo dos sonhos, o subconsciente da pessoa, e funcionam da seguinte maneira, Date entra na mente de alguém através de uma máquina que faz parte da divisão super-secreta da polícia de nosso protagonista, chamada ABIS e após Date se conectar com o alvo através da mesma, se iniciam os Somniums. Quando entramos lá controlamos Aiba, a IA que nosso protagonista tem em seu olho, que assume uma forma fisíca. Lá precisamos interagir com os itens certos do cenário e assim recriar a lembrança da pessoa, passo a passo e descobrir alguma pista, revisititando suas memórias. Assim que assumimos o controle, um timer é iniciado em cima da tela. Cada interação com as coisas gastam tempo, então usar os itens errados resulta em esvair o tempo mais rápido, por exemplo, o item certo é um telefone, usar ele gasta 10 segundos, mas do lado tem uma panela, que seria o item errado, seu uso são 30 segundos, por conta de você não saber o item certo pra progedir as coisas se tornam pura tentativa e erro. Há várias interações erradas que rendem ótimas piadas e momentos engraçados, então o uso de itens errados nem sempre acabam sendo frustrantes, mas isso é totalmente subjetivo e no fim são puzzles que envolvem mais sorte que lógica. O diferencial de seus trechos é a ambientação, já que se passa dentro do subcosciente da pessoa, as coisas são distorcidas levando em conta os medos e sentimentos do alvo, lembrando muito os palácios do Persona 5, com cada um sendo distinto um do outro e tendo uma atmosfera sensacional. O ''loop'' de gameplay é basicamente esse, narrativa de VN com point and click em cenários 3D com vários trechos de Somniums espalhados no decorrer do gameplay.
Agora chegou a hora de falar do que o jogo se propõe a fazer dentro de uma mídia desse gênero, sua história. Já vou dizer logo de cara, é uma obra-prima. AI se trata da história de um detetive numa tóquio futurista que tenta resolver o caso de um serial killer a solta (uau, que surpresa!). Assim que o jogo começa, já estamos na crime scene da primeira vítima. O que me chamou atenção logo de cara é a vibe melancólica que o jogo tem, apesar dele ser bem canastrão e novelesco em alguns momentos, sua atmosera e trilha sonora constroem uma vibe solene, que perdura por praticamente todo o jogo. A contrução de tensão que o jogo faz é magistral, te deixando sempre confuso, confuso e confuso, ja disse que esse jogo te deixa confuso? Eu nunca disse tantos ''Que?'' ou ''Como assim?'' antes, com o jogo te dando migalhas o tempo todo, e quando vem uma bomba, vem sempre com aquele porém que só te confunde ainda mais. O jeito que eles conseguiram segurar a verdade te fazendo duvidar de tudo e todos até o clímax do jogo foi feito de maneira sensacional, causando um mix de emoções o tempo inteiro, se tornando uma experiência inesquecível pra mim. AI é facilmente um Thriller, cheio de cenas intensas e com direito até algumas cenas de ação completamente absurdas, que são mediadas pelo inovador quick-time event. Eu achei a grande verdade sobre tudo absolutamente genial e além de condizente com tudo que contaram, também foi condizente com toda a forma de narrativa que o jogo contava, que é mediada por diferentes informações e revelações contadas em diferentes rotas, funcionando igual ao Zero Escape, que não por coincidência é do mesmo diretor, o infâme Kotaro Uchikoshi. Não posso falar muito mais que isso, mas é um Murder Mystery impecável.
Kaname Date, nosso protagonista. Ele é um detetive extremamente canastrão parecendo que saiu de algum filme dos anos 80, cheio de piadinhas e frases de efeito, mas claro, com aquele toquezinho japonês de sempre. Eu achei ele absurdamente divertido e engraçado e sempre me pegava rindo com suas piadas bobocas. Sua química com Aiba, sua IA é sensacional transformando os dois numa bela dupla dinâmica. E já que estou falando dos personagens, seu cast, com exceção de um certo cara que se veste como um treinador Pokémon, é fantástico. Além do carisma que entregam, todos são bem desenvolvidos, entregando bastante maturidade em alguns tópicos. O jogo sempre brinca entre se levar a sério ou não, mas quando é pra ser drámatico ele acerta em cheio, tem algumas cenas e finais que realmente pesam no coração.
Os finais alternativos são bons, e o jogo conta com o Flow Chart. O jogo tranca a progressão de algumas rotas igual o Virtue's Last Reward, te deixando a flor da pele em algum plot twist ou revelação bombástica, então é necessário fazer todos os finais pra liberar o true ending. O tempo de jogo varia entre 25~30 horas, sempre depende do tempo de leitura, mas eu achei que teve um pace perfeito. Sua trilha sonora é um espetáculo, cheio de faixas melancólicas e misteriosas, e em alguns Somniums beiram o horror. Quando são cenas de ação, vira até Yakuza. Achei as trilhas perfeitas e muito bem encaixadas, entregando certinho o que cada cena ou cenário pedia, enfim é padrão de jogo japonês, eu sou bem rigído com Soundtracks e fiquei bem servido aqui.
Eu recomendo isso aqui sem pensar duas vezes pra qualquer um, seja pra quem queira ver uma boa história, ou até pra quem nunca jogou VNs e quer algum jogo pra se aventurar no gênero, ele é perfeito pra isso. Quem é fã de Ace Attorney ou Danganronpa tá mais que bem servido aqui, ou de quem gosta de boas histórias mediadas por adventures, já que o jogo bebe muito de clássicos do gênero, também vai estar bem servido. Só não vale pra quem não quer ficar lendo o tempo todo, quanto a isso não tem o que fazer. É uma das melhores histórias que já tive o prazer de ver em um video-game e claro, uma verdadeira obra-prima do gênero que defenderei com minha alma.
AI é uma visual novel com seu maior diferencial sendo o uso de modelos e cenários totalmente em 3D, com direito a várias cutscenes. Pelos cenários serem em 3D, eles funcionam como um point and click tradicional onde interagimos com o cenário em busca de pistas e interagimos com os personagens em tela, nada de novo ai. Após algum tempo somos introduzidos a grande mecânica de gameplay do jogo, o Somnium. Alguns não gostam e acham os puzzles maçantes, já eu acho absurdamente criativo. Somniums seriam o mundo dos sonhos, o subconsciente da pessoa, e funcionam da seguinte maneira, Date entra na mente de alguém através de uma máquina que faz parte da divisão super-secreta da polícia de nosso protagonista, chamada ABIS e após Date se conectar com o alvo através da mesma, se iniciam os Somniums. Quando entramos lá controlamos Aiba, a IA que nosso protagonista tem em seu olho, que assume uma forma fisíca. Lá precisamos interagir com os itens certos do cenário e assim recriar a lembrança da pessoa, passo a passo e descobrir alguma pista, revisititando suas memórias. Assim que assumimos o controle, um timer é iniciado em cima da tela. Cada interação com as coisas gastam tempo, então usar os itens errados resulta em esvair o tempo mais rápido, por exemplo, o item certo é um telefone, usar ele gasta 10 segundos, mas do lado tem uma panela, que seria o item errado, seu uso são 30 segundos, por conta de você não saber o item certo pra progedir as coisas se tornam pura tentativa e erro. Há várias interações erradas que rendem ótimas piadas e momentos engraçados, então o uso de itens errados nem sempre acabam sendo frustrantes, mas isso é totalmente subjetivo e no fim são puzzles que envolvem mais sorte que lógica. O diferencial de seus trechos é a ambientação, já que se passa dentro do subcosciente da pessoa, as coisas são distorcidas levando em conta os medos e sentimentos do alvo, lembrando muito os palácios do Persona 5, com cada um sendo distinto um do outro e tendo uma atmosfera sensacional. O ''loop'' de gameplay é basicamente esse, narrativa de VN com point and click em cenários 3D com vários trechos de Somniums espalhados no decorrer do gameplay.
Agora chegou a hora de falar do que o jogo se propõe a fazer dentro de uma mídia desse gênero, sua história. Já vou dizer logo de cara, é uma obra-prima. AI se trata da história de um detetive numa tóquio futurista que tenta resolver o caso de um serial killer a solta (uau, que surpresa!). Assim que o jogo começa, já estamos na crime scene da primeira vítima. O que me chamou atenção logo de cara é a vibe melancólica que o jogo tem, apesar dele ser bem canastrão e novelesco em alguns momentos, sua atmosera e trilha sonora constroem uma vibe solene, que perdura por praticamente todo o jogo. A contrução de tensão que o jogo faz é magistral, te deixando sempre confuso, confuso e confuso, ja disse que esse jogo te deixa confuso? Eu nunca disse tantos ''Que?'' ou ''Como assim?'' antes, com o jogo te dando migalhas o tempo todo, e quando vem uma bomba, vem sempre com aquele porém que só te confunde ainda mais. O jeito que eles conseguiram segurar a verdade te fazendo duvidar de tudo e todos até o clímax do jogo foi feito de maneira sensacional, causando um mix de emoções o tempo inteiro, se tornando uma experiência inesquecível pra mim. AI é facilmente um Thriller, cheio de cenas intensas e com direito até algumas cenas de ação completamente absurdas, que são mediadas pelo inovador quick-time event. Eu achei a grande verdade sobre tudo absolutamente genial e além de condizente com tudo que contaram, também foi condizente com toda a forma de narrativa que o jogo contava, que é mediada por diferentes informações e revelações contadas em diferentes rotas, funcionando igual ao Zero Escape, que não por coincidência é do mesmo diretor, o infâme Kotaro Uchikoshi. Não posso falar muito mais que isso, mas é um Murder Mystery impecável.
Kaname Date, nosso protagonista. Ele é um detetive extremamente canastrão parecendo que saiu de algum filme dos anos 80, cheio de piadinhas e frases de efeito, mas claro, com aquele toquezinho japonês de sempre. Eu achei ele absurdamente divertido e engraçado e sempre me pegava rindo com suas piadas bobocas. Sua química com Aiba, sua IA é sensacional transformando os dois numa bela dupla dinâmica. E já que estou falando dos personagens, seu cast, com exceção de um certo cara que se veste como um treinador Pokémon, é fantástico. Além do carisma que entregam, todos são bem desenvolvidos, entregando bastante maturidade em alguns tópicos. O jogo sempre brinca entre se levar a sério ou não, mas quando é pra ser drámatico ele acerta em cheio, tem algumas cenas e finais que realmente pesam no coração.
Os finais alternativos são bons, e o jogo conta com o Flow Chart. O jogo tranca a progressão de algumas rotas igual o Virtue's Last Reward, te deixando a flor da pele em algum plot twist ou revelação bombástica, então é necessário fazer todos os finais pra liberar o true ending. O tempo de jogo varia entre 25~30 horas, sempre depende do tempo de leitura, mas eu achei que teve um pace perfeito. Sua trilha sonora é um espetáculo, cheio de faixas melancólicas e misteriosas, e em alguns Somniums beiram o horror. Quando são cenas de ação, vira até Yakuza. Achei as trilhas perfeitas e muito bem encaixadas, entregando certinho o que cada cena ou cenário pedia, enfim é padrão de jogo japonês, eu sou bem rigído com Soundtracks e fiquei bem servido aqui.
Eu recomendo isso aqui sem pensar duas vezes pra qualquer um, seja pra quem queira ver uma boa história, ou até pra quem nunca jogou VNs e quer algum jogo pra se aventurar no gênero, ele é perfeito pra isso. Quem é fã de Ace Attorney ou Danganronpa tá mais que bem servido aqui, ou de quem gosta de boas histórias mediadas por adventures, já que o jogo bebe muito de clássicos do gênero, também vai estar bem servido. Só não vale pra quem não quer ficar lendo o tempo todo, quanto a isso não tem o que fazer. É uma das melhores histórias que já tive o prazer de ver em um video-game e claro, uma verdadeira obra-prima do gênero que defenderei com minha alma.
Date is how I'll be in 15 years time
i love these characters too much to rate this game any lower
Huge Breasts
It's got some jank to it, and you can tell it doesn't have a very big budget. But it's so funny and well written, and that last hour is nuts. I wanna torture Kaname Date in a shipping container for a week.
looking camp right in the aiba
One of the few police stories to depict police officers as they should be: as unpleasant and incompetent freak perverts. The rest of the game is well-done too, especially the deep bench of supporting characters . The actual gameplay segments are a little less successful but the story and writing help mitigate this.
they’re going to hell for what they did with mizuki in aini after this
The Gamepass Route: END
LOOK DATE, BUGS! YAY!
My new king of the underrated category, a hidden gem.
This game is amazing, the story, the cast, the atmosphere, the world, the scifi, everything. Get only one of the (i think) big endings, but soon i will finish it all and update this review.
LOOK DATE, BUGS! YAY!
My new king of the underrated category, a hidden gem.
This game is amazing, the story, the cast, the atmosphere, the world, the scifi, everything. Get only one of the (i think) big endings, but soon i will finish it all and update this review.
I'll write a real review once i'm done crying. Thank you, Ai
I was absolutely hooked on Somnium Files when I've played it!
The plot is constantly engaging (with full voice acting!) and the cast is simply amazing. My only real complaint is the trial-and-error gameplay, which can get really frustrating (especially near the end where you're on a tight timer).
The plot is constantly engaging (with full voice acting!) and the cast is simply amazing. My only real complaint is the trial-and-error gameplay, which can get really frustrating (especially near the end where you're on a tight timer).
Uchikoshi, you beautiful bastard. AI isn't perfect but it still ticks all the boxes and has one of the most memorable endings in gaming. The soundtrack is killer and the characters are ace and I love them (but I do feel bad about the one person that I decided right away sucked and then doubted through the entire game for basically nothing) :)
I feel it too often uses stupidity in the name of comedy to get characters out of situations I would otherwise assume to be treacherous ones (see the porno mag bullet time and mizuki vs. the counter strike soldiers scenes). Leaving me feeling a tad ambivalent whenever 'actual' dangerous scenes rolled around because during them I’m just left thinking: “oh! why aren’t you guys trying the wacky shit from before to get yourselves out of this one???”. Like that shit's ‘FUNNY’ but at WHAT cost, ya know? Just the classic occasional Uchikoshi tonal whiplash at work I suppose!
It has some really strong things for the characters to prattle on about - like how they perceive the concept of family and other such MEANINGFUL TALKS. And like usual Zero Escape shit it's all good fun to get absorbed in for a time. But after awhile, when you're deep in the game and would want things to go a bit beyond a surface level enjoyment, the big talking points and more heart-to-heart-y stuff don't always seem believably... prompted enough? Like you'll have scenes where this CHILD character Mizuki goes off about some desired family stuff, but it never sounds like she's having an actual conversation with the other character in the room (Date) about the topic, and it ends up moreso feeling like she's just mouthing the worldview the author wants to preach for that scene; as if she already has all the knowledge about the subject and doesn’t need to realize it with Date through actual communication. When he's supposed to be her father figure and should probably play a bigger part of the discussion! There's a lot of prattlings like that, aaaaand they aren't as genuine as I'd like! They just APPEAR in all their glory and ya don't always buy any of it as believable dialogue. It really bothers me…
That kinda irksome shit and the way I JUST TOTALLY HAAATED how they delivered the ‘point’ of certain scenes so 'obviously' is what I most remember about the experience, but it’s still a fairly solid funny enough mystery thriller kinda thing evenstill. It's very simply LIKABLE and has the best use of gameplay out of any of the other Uchikoshis I've played. With the ‘escape rooms’ finally having the adventure game dream world shit you interact with metaphor more often with meaningful story pieces over just existing as isolated and random ass video game do-dads like the kind of shit we were interacting with back in 999. Date and Aiba are fun leads, but I kinda feel like the funny eyeball girl does a BIT too much of the progression legwork and it can sometimes start to seem less like a real partnership and Date looks like he’s just hanging around solely to absorb the plot but ahh now I’m bitching again. It’s FFFIIIINE. THEY'RE FUNNY. EVERYONE IS. I just don’t think back on the game’s big BOMBSHELL moments too often and 'AWE AT THE KINO...' because of this kinda shit.
ALSO YEAH DON'T PLAY IT ON THE SWITCH LOL. Uchikoshi works LOVE to repeat themselves and overexplain shit, and this game does so by flashbacking entire clips from previous scenes to play before you. Those scenes also happen to take just a bit to LOAD when played on console. You can see where this is going!
Like it can already feel like you're being a little babied, as if the game doesn't trust you can keep up with its mysteries without constantly giving reminders. In combination with this delay from the loading issue though... The BABYING can come off a tad insufferable! Kind of degrading even! A growing resentment for the story can be formed due to this combination shitstorm and the exTRA bit of time the story takes to repeat itself!
Haha yeah no THAT was what I remembered most from the game. That's all then! never let the merciless world erase you, or whatever~
It has some really strong things for the characters to prattle on about - like how they perceive the concept of family and other such MEANINGFUL TALKS. And like usual Zero Escape shit it's all good fun to get absorbed in for a time. But after awhile, when you're deep in the game and would want things to go a bit beyond a surface level enjoyment, the big talking points and more heart-to-heart-y stuff don't always seem believably... prompted enough? Like you'll have scenes where this CHILD character Mizuki goes off about some desired family stuff, but it never sounds like she's having an actual conversation with the other character in the room (Date) about the topic, and it ends up moreso feeling like she's just mouthing the worldview the author wants to preach for that scene; as if she already has all the knowledge about the subject and doesn’t need to realize it with Date through actual communication. When he's supposed to be her father figure and should probably play a bigger part of the discussion! There's a lot of prattlings like that, aaaaand they aren't as genuine as I'd like! They just APPEAR in all their glory and ya don't always buy any of it as believable dialogue. It really bothers me…
That kinda irksome shit and the way I JUST TOTALLY HAAATED how they delivered the ‘point’ of certain scenes so 'obviously' is what I most remember about the experience, but it’s still a fairly solid funny enough mystery thriller kinda thing evenstill. It's very simply LIKABLE and has the best use of gameplay out of any of the other Uchikoshis I've played. With the ‘escape rooms’ finally having the adventure game dream world shit you interact with metaphor more often with meaningful story pieces over just existing as isolated and random ass video game do-dads like the kind of shit we were interacting with back in 999. Date and Aiba are fun leads, but I kinda feel like the funny eyeball girl does a BIT too much of the progression legwork and it can sometimes start to seem less like a real partnership and Date looks like he’s just hanging around solely to absorb the plot but ahh now I’m bitching again. It’s FFFIIIINE. THEY'RE FUNNY. EVERYONE IS. I just don’t think back on the game’s big BOMBSHELL moments too often and 'AWE AT THE KINO...' because of this kinda shit.
ALSO YEAH DON'T PLAY IT ON THE SWITCH LOL. Uchikoshi works LOVE to repeat themselves and overexplain shit, and this game does so by flashbacking entire clips from previous scenes to play before you. Those scenes also happen to take just a bit to LOAD when played on console. You can see where this is going!
Like it can already feel like you're being a little babied, as if the game doesn't trust you can keep up with its mysteries without constantly giving reminders. In combination with this delay from the loading issue though... The BABYING can come off a tad insufferable! Kind of degrading even! A growing resentment for the story can be formed due to this combination shitstorm and the exTRA bit of time the story takes to repeat itself!
Haha yeah no THAT was what I remembered most from the game. That's all then! never let the merciless world erase you, or whatever~
"41205, just a number that I really like"
what the fuck was up with that ending ong like first you make me bawl like a baby and then you do that
ai the somniun files was on my watch for some time now due to me actually having been accustomed to kaname date porn on rule34 and actually wanting to explore more of this character apart from him getting railed like a slut
that being said this is an investigative game made with 2 dimes and a beer to anyone who's interested in doing the character animation which is very bare as I can tell but not for that reason less charming
while I do think this game has a lot of rough edges and the pacing isn't always the smoothest (just a few points though so nothing of note) this was such a fucking treat for its 20 hours runtime what the fucking hell
you play as date who's a hunk of a man absolutely delicious looking pervert tit aficionado part of the police department in the subunit of abis where they explore human minds through dreams via a machine that acts as a bridge for the investigator consciousness to creampie the host
that's easier when you play it than it is to explain it but basically this is just the usual excuse for some investigation tricks and minigames and a damn good plot device for the entirety of the mystery at hand I have never seen paprika till now even though I probably should but I think the main premise is basically the same but paprika doesn't have kaname date so clearly it's the lesser experience
now this plays a lot similar to a danganronpa game but without the over the top character designs and writing substituted by a more muted cast of characters who are some degree of insane or quirky or mad like the pretend they're not danganronpa characters but if you dig deep enough you will find that everyone can be matched with a character in danganronpa sick trick
you investigate you try to solve the mystery I don't have to tell you how a danganronpa game works the investigative parts are passable at best being more of a point and click affair more similar to a visual novel type of deal yknow ace attorney and shit and then the somnium segments who at first I thought were really good soon became a 999-puzzles type of deal where I just began to get irritated by them and look for a guide because they have no real cohesion whatsoever youre like lemme see what happens if I blow on this fan and then 120 seconds will go away and its not even the right action like how am I supposed to know what to do when this shit is completely insane
somehow I can say that they're pretty charming for how out there they are like some weird shit is gonna happen to aiba and youre gonna laugh but since its actually a dream its all good then you can steal the informations from the bad guys and alls well that ends well
so I guess that's the main gameplay loop it's not entirely my thing but I can live with that I definitely preferred the investigative bits because I'm more of a visual novel guy I like to sit back and see the story rolling instead im just not that much of a puzzle lover so the somnium stuff was kinda interesting but not entirely my thing and I actually struggle to call it puzzle because of the fact that its more trial and error-y than I'd like it to be honestly
while the investigative stuff is defo the highlight the characters actually tend to take the spotlight in this one since youre gonna have a lot of deep dive into the characterisation and psyche of these pixels and they all casually move around date I wonder what that means and mind you my favorite pals are iris being my sweet little ray of sunshine and mizuki being my sweet little sumo wrestler and aiba being my sweet little artificial intelligence I love the gals in this one I cannot lie and boss is also a good dominatrix to boot
story wise this can get a bit convoluted and stupid but DAMN is it not gripping and entertaining from beginning to end this one of those multiple endings type of narrative games but the catch is that it's more linear than I thought it'd be if you get in a route where you're not supposed to know some stuff the game is gonna gatekeep you from moving forward and you're gonna have to try and find the right route to unlock that one and then unlock another one and so on pretty good actually and you also get a flowchart I love flowcharts
so one second SPOILER TERRITORY I want to fuck falco also since this is the nick I use all the time it was pretty weird seeing the characters talk about this guy since I thought they were talking about me but at one point I was like wait I didnt have to put no name in the beginning and then the realisation that the guy is falco so as I was saying yeah I want to fuck him so hard but i mean he's also date but date is not date because he's the son of the congressman and date is not falco anymore because it's his deadname now LISTEN this game gets fucking convoluted I enjoyed a lot the little progression and the series of murders and shit here and there but the final revelation of the body swapping gets real confusing real fast sure it's pretty charming and fucked up and needs you to do a lot of suspension of disbelief to actually get ingrained into the whole affair but it pays off uchikoshi wrote a real treat of a sci-fi flavored crime mystery and I cannot really say any bad words about it
some routes hit more than the others or have more meat in terms of story than the rest but when you put them all together you can understand why this game was such a hit honestly and to zero escape fans returning this is gonna be up they're alley
while the body swapping thing gets real crazy I actually digged the whole falco backstory with iris and hitomi that shit was fire and made me lose all the hair on my head im not gonna fuck with you here those were some real good story beats
this is such a fucking ride from beginning to end its so serious at times and so incredibly silly at others but that's the charm of it all youre gonna get somebody talking about terminal illnesses and date will say oh my god boobs also what's up with date being a sex freak while I'm literally here waiting for him to ride me I don't get it
that being said the highs are high and this game makes you care for its characters too damn much you could find me crying for half of the endings in the games because theres nothing that hurts me more than making me emotionally attached to a character and then seeing them suffer through every evil in the world why would you make me so sad and thats without putting into the equation all the falco x hitomi x iris scenes with all the backstories and shit likeeee it's so fucking sad don't talk to me
final consideration the music is bomb
side note I find it very funny that mizuki has the orichalcum trident in the mermaid cafe and then I realised that's because she's been neglected by her family and she just kept going there not to be alone and then it wasn't funny anymore
and ota route HIT
I read about someone bashing sex humor don't you ever say that to me ever again sex humor is the funniest shit ever don't @ me
"i had a beautiful dream" iris i just wanted you to be happy
what the fuck was up with that ending ong like first you make me bawl like a baby and then you do that
ai the somniun files was on my watch for some time now due to me actually having been accustomed to kaname date porn on rule34 and actually wanting to explore more of this character apart from him getting railed like a slut
that being said this is an investigative game made with 2 dimes and a beer to anyone who's interested in doing the character animation which is very bare as I can tell but not for that reason less charming
while I do think this game has a lot of rough edges and the pacing isn't always the smoothest (just a few points though so nothing of note) this was such a fucking treat for its 20 hours runtime what the fucking hell
you play as date who's a hunk of a man absolutely delicious looking pervert tit aficionado part of the police department in the subunit of abis where they explore human minds through dreams via a machine that acts as a bridge for the investigator consciousness to creampie the host
that's easier when you play it than it is to explain it but basically this is just the usual excuse for some investigation tricks and minigames and a damn good plot device for the entirety of the mystery at hand I have never seen paprika till now even though I probably should but I think the main premise is basically the same but paprika doesn't have kaname date so clearly it's the lesser experience
now this plays a lot similar to a danganronpa game but without the over the top character designs and writing substituted by a more muted cast of characters who are some degree of insane or quirky or mad like the pretend they're not danganronpa characters but if you dig deep enough you will find that everyone can be matched with a character in danganronpa sick trick
you investigate you try to solve the mystery I don't have to tell you how a danganronpa game works the investigative parts are passable at best being more of a point and click affair more similar to a visual novel type of deal yknow ace attorney and shit and then the somnium segments who at first I thought were really good soon became a 999-puzzles type of deal where I just began to get irritated by them and look for a guide because they have no real cohesion whatsoever youre like lemme see what happens if I blow on this fan and then 120 seconds will go away and its not even the right action like how am I supposed to know what to do when this shit is completely insane
somehow I can say that they're pretty charming for how out there they are like some weird shit is gonna happen to aiba and youre gonna laugh but since its actually a dream its all good then you can steal the informations from the bad guys and alls well that ends well
so I guess that's the main gameplay loop it's not entirely my thing but I can live with that I definitely preferred the investigative bits because I'm more of a visual novel guy I like to sit back and see the story rolling instead im just not that much of a puzzle lover so the somnium stuff was kinda interesting but not entirely my thing and I actually struggle to call it puzzle because of the fact that its more trial and error-y than I'd like it to be honestly
while the investigative stuff is defo the highlight the characters actually tend to take the spotlight in this one since youre gonna have a lot of deep dive into the characterisation and psyche of these pixels and they all casually move around date I wonder what that means and mind you my favorite pals are iris being my sweet little ray of sunshine and mizuki being my sweet little sumo wrestler and aiba being my sweet little artificial intelligence I love the gals in this one I cannot lie and boss is also a good dominatrix to boot
story wise this can get a bit convoluted and stupid but DAMN is it not gripping and entertaining from beginning to end this one of those multiple endings type of narrative games but the catch is that it's more linear than I thought it'd be if you get in a route where you're not supposed to know some stuff the game is gonna gatekeep you from moving forward and you're gonna have to try and find the right route to unlock that one and then unlock another one and so on pretty good actually and you also get a flowchart I love flowcharts
so one second SPOILER TERRITORY I want to fuck falco also since this is the nick I use all the time it was pretty weird seeing the characters talk about this guy since I thought they were talking about me but at one point I was like wait I didnt have to put no name in the beginning and then the realisation that the guy is falco so as I was saying yeah I want to fuck him so hard but i mean he's also date but date is not date because he's the son of the congressman and date is not falco anymore because it's his deadname now LISTEN this game gets fucking convoluted I enjoyed a lot the little progression and the series of murders and shit here and there but the final revelation of the body swapping gets real confusing real fast sure it's pretty charming and fucked up and needs you to do a lot of suspension of disbelief to actually get ingrained into the whole affair but it pays off uchikoshi wrote a real treat of a sci-fi flavored crime mystery and I cannot really say any bad words about it
some routes hit more than the others or have more meat in terms of story than the rest but when you put them all together you can understand why this game was such a hit honestly and to zero escape fans returning this is gonna be up they're alley
while the body swapping thing gets real crazy I actually digged the whole falco backstory with iris and hitomi that shit was fire and made me lose all the hair on my head im not gonna fuck with you here those were some real good story beats
this is such a fucking ride from beginning to end its so serious at times and so incredibly silly at others but that's the charm of it all youre gonna get somebody talking about terminal illnesses and date will say oh my god boobs also what's up with date being a sex freak while I'm literally here waiting for him to ride me I don't get it
that being said the highs are high and this game makes you care for its characters too damn much you could find me crying for half of the endings in the games because theres nothing that hurts me more than making me emotionally attached to a character and then seeing them suffer through every evil in the world why would you make me so sad and thats without putting into the equation all the falco x hitomi x iris scenes with all the backstories and shit likeeee it's so fucking sad don't talk to me
final consideration the music is bomb
side note I find it very funny that mizuki has the orichalcum trident in the mermaid cafe and then I realised that's because she's been neglected by her family and she just kept going there not to be alone and then it wasn't funny anymore
and ota route HIT
I read about someone bashing sex humor don't you ever say that to me ever again sex humor is the funniest shit ever don't @ me
"i had a beautiful dream" iris i just wanted you to be happy
This was so good! Its a lot goofier than i expected but also a lot more touching. Definitely a bit niche but i loved it so much i immediately bought the second
lol @ all the nerds in this review section saying they cried at this game's story.
the gameplay is outright terrible. it's trial-and-error mixed with a time limit where every action costs time. you're either going to be restarting a lot because the game expects you to make leaps in logic for every single dream sequence, or you'll just do what any normal person would do and use a guide. the game is poorly paced too, god damn is there just not enough dream sequences for a $60 game. you're going to be leaning on the "sit around and read dialogue" aspect of this game a lot, and even as someone who's played uchikoshi games, i found myself running out of patience.
the greatest sin is the story, hoo boy. the main character is pretty much unlikable and the plot is soaked with misogyny (unironically the main character gets super-human powers when he sniffs women's dirty laundry or thinks there's a porn magazine nearby) and the characters are flat. the plot has moments of intrigue that come very late and don't get properly explored in a way i'd expect from uchikoshi. anyone who tells you this game made them cry should not be trusted, their opinion is immediately invalidated.
the gameplay is outright terrible. it's trial-and-error mixed with a time limit where every action costs time. you're either going to be restarting a lot because the game expects you to make leaps in logic for every single dream sequence, or you'll just do what any normal person would do and use a guide. the game is poorly paced too, god damn is there just not enough dream sequences for a $60 game. you're going to be leaning on the "sit around and read dialogue" aspect of this game a lot, and even as someone who's played uchikoshi games, i found myself running out of patience.
the greatest sin is the story, hoo boy. the main character is pretty much unlikable and the plot is soaked with misogyny (unironically the main character gets super-human powers when he sniffs women's dirty laundry or thinks there's a porn magazine nearby) and the characters are flat. the plot has moments of intrigue that come very late and don't get properly explored in a way i'd expect from uchikoshi. anyone who tells you this game made them cry should not be trusted, their opinion is immediately invalidated.
sex with kaname date
This review contains spoilers
I remember someone recently asked, while I was playing this exact game, what my opinion on Uchikoshi was, as a content creator. I think I somewhat summarized it to calling him a good director, but not a good writer. Having played around half of Ever17, Remember11 (which I struggle to call one of his works, but the impact he had isn't something to discard), the Zero Escape trilogy, and now AI, I would say I have a strong grip on the man as the years passed and my tastes evolved, and I would comfortably say that AI is possibly the least Uchikoshi Uchikoshi work, and this is a double-edged blade.
The constant theming between Uchikoshi works is its constrained, smaller casts and isolated settings. Ever17 has about 7 characters of importance, and the Zero Escape series has constantly utilized casts of 9 for their death games, with additional characters depending on a couple of variables. Another one of Uchikoshi's trademarks are his constant twist recycling, his love for dirty jokes and just general writing that's considered perverse, and just the general mystery angle that's always been present. He has, after all, said to write his endings first and then the rest; the key core of his works, more than anything, is mystery. So how does AI work with these concepts and evolve with what is his largest scale work as of now? Well, he kind of does and doesn't change much.
The bigger difference is AI's cast: it's pretty big compared to his previous works. Date, Aiba, Mizuki, Boss, Pewter, Hitomi, Renju, Shoko, Ota, Iris, Mama, Sejima, Moma, Renju, alongside other minor but present variables are all important parts of the chessboard here, having their motivations and actions which all affect the way the mystery works. Given that and the setting being a prefecture than a fixed location, such as the ship in 999, AI's atmosphere evolves less of a feeling that a guillotine grows closer towards your neck, and more of providing various kinds of escape of these guillotines for the ensemble cast that's been presented, and makes it a much more character-centric experience.
So does AI succeed at making you care about the characters? Well, kind of. I will say I found Date's personality to be more charismatic than I thought it'd be, but his actual struggles and characterization I wasn't exactly sold on, more on that later. I would say Mizuki and Boss are both characters I found the most interesting; Mizuki's coping with her parent's death was well handled in her route and I found the found family angle of it nice, while Boss lends to my favorite route in the game, while making her emotions for Date transparent, and thus, found her to be a strong personality that bounced off Date, but also felt as a strong cushion. As for Iris, well, she's my least favorite of the cast. Her route just felt very weird which makes sense when taken into account she has a brain tumor, and Date basically connected to that, but even then I wasn't too big on the family angle between her and Date. I did find him and Hitomi to be nice, but it doesn't exactly salvage it. Ota sucks. Aiba has cool chemistry with Date but not much else.
So while the characters are somewhat hit or miss, and thus makes the actual atmosphere much less consistent than it should, the routes I would say are pretty consistent in quality. I mentioned Ota sucks, but I found his relationship with his mother was nice in his route, while Iris route lends more for the plot in interesting ways. Mizuki route is my second favorite; again, I liked the way she was handled and I'd say that enhanced Date's character much more. Annihilation route was my favorite route, however; seeing the plot unravel and Date be tortured emotionally was a strong rollercoaster, and it led to some fun moments and strong moments of tension.
True route I do consider my third favorite route, so it's a little half and half; it's where I see most of Uchikoshi's flaws crop up and harm the experience. To start somewhere, I really do not like the way that the whole "timeline knowledge" thing works; it's a very present concept from Uchikoshi, where information in Zero Escape is shared by the Morphogenic Field, and Ever17's Blick Winkel, alongside Remember11's SELF. AI opts for a... "fractal" concept, where Date remembers information from other routes via pieces of memory in his body, which frankly, does not make sense. I kind of get it in a way to sidestep constant infodumps, but it's a concept that's just written in and ignored, which is also a constant thing I noticed. Outside of that, I found Saito to be a lackluster culprit. He doesn't have much of a presence, and his motivations were lackluster at best. He does have one of my favorite quotes in the game, but regardless, not too strong. The twist with Date's body and identity works, but it's... a bit of a Phi Sigma situation where it recontextualizes a couple of things to be unfortunate, mostly Date and Iris pre-True having some less than tasteful moments. I also just find the twist to be too complicated for its own good, as well as having a couple of leaps of logic I didn't find too well executed. It really needs a lot of suspension of disbelief to work, and it... kind of, kind of doesn't work.
Side note, Uchikoshi's plot twist reuse isn't as present here as it is usually. At least, nothing really screamed at me that there was something from E17 used, barring maybe the body switching? IDK, not too important, didn't bother me. Nirvana Initiative seems worse with it lol.
The Somniums are interesting, but I never found them to work well as puzzles, and more as interesting interpretations of the characters. I usually just had a guide for most of them because I didn't want to struggle with how the timer works, and a lot of the answers felt either too easy, or too warped with the internal logic utilized. Regardless, cool concept, not too strong execution.
Which, that kind of summarizes my thoughts with AI? I felt affirmed that I can't consider Uchikoshi a good writer when his strongest concepts aren't done so well, when the issue doesn't lie with the direction, but with the raw text itself. It's hard to consider the final twist good when too much of the work is made to justify it, than it fitting naturally. And so, when everything seems strong and detailed by itself, the attempt to jam it in together makes it less than the sum of its part.
At the end of the day, it's not a fractal; it's an uneven jigsaw puzzle. But at least those singular pieces are good occasionally?
small edit because i forgot to put this in but the dance number ending is the best part of the game completely unironically
The constant theming between Uchikoshi works is its constrained, smaller casts and isolated settings. Ever17 has about 7 characters of importance, and the Zero Escape series has constantly utilized casts of 9 for their death games, with additional characters depending on a couple of variables. Another one of Uchikoshi's trademarks are his constant twist recycling, his love for dirty jokes and just general writing that's considered perverse, and just the general mystery angle that's always been present. He has, after all, said to write his endings first and then the rest; the key core of his works, more than anything, is mystery. So how does AI work with these concepts and evolve with what is his largest scale work as of now? Well, he kind of does and doesn't change much.
The bigger difference is AI's cast: it's pretty big compared to his previous works. Date, Aiba, Mizuki, Boss, Pewter, Hitomi, Renju, Shoko, Ota, Iris, Mama, Sejima, Moma, Renju, alongside other minor but present variables are all important parts of the chessboard here, having their motivations and actions which all affect the way the mystery works. Given that and the setting being a prefecture than a fixed location, such as the ship in 999, AI's atmosphere evolves less of a feeling that a guillotine grows closer towards your neck, and more of providing various kinds of escape of these guillotines for the ensemble cast that's been presented, and makes it a much more character-centric experience.
So does AI succeed at making you care about the characters? Well, kind of. I will say I found Date's personality to be more charismatic than I thought it'd be, but his actual struggles and characterization I wasn't exactly sold on, more on that later. I would say Mizuki and Boss are both characters I found the most interesting; Mizuki's coping with her parent's death was well handled in her route and I found the found family angle of it nice, while Boss lends to my favorite route in the game, while making her emotions for Date transparent, and thus, found her to be a strong personality that bounced off Date, but also felt as a strong cushion. As for Iris, well, she's my least favorite of the cast. Her route just felt very weird which makes sense when taken into account she has a brain tumor, and Date basically connected to that, but even then I wasn't too big on the family angle between her and Date. I did find him and Hitomi to be nice, but it doesn't exactly salvage it. Ota sucks. Aiba has cool chemistry with Date but not much else.
So while the characters are somewhat hit or miss, and thus makes the actual atmosphere much less consistent than it should, the routes I would say are pretty consistent in quality. I mentioned Ota sucks, but I found his relationship with his mother was nice in his route, while Iris route lends more for the plot in interesting ways. Mizuki route is my second favorite; again, I liked the way she was handled and I'd say that enhanced Date's character much more. Annihilation route was my favorite route, however; seeing the plot unravel and Date be tortured emotionally was a strong rollercoaster, and it led to some fun moments and strong moments of tension.
True route I do consider my third favorite route, so it's a little half and half; it's where I see most of Uchikoshi's flaws crop up and harm the experience. To start somewhere, I really do not like the way that the whole "timeline knowledge" thing works; it's a very present concept from Uchikoshi, where information in Zero Escape is shared by the Morphogenic Field, and Ever17's Blick Winkel, alongside Remember11's SELF. AI opts for a... "fractal" concept, where Date remembers information from other routes via pieces of memory in his body, which frankly, does not make sense. I kind of get it in a way to sidestep constant infodumps, but it's a concept that's just written in and ignored, which is also a constant thing I noticed. Outside of that, I found Saito to be a lackluster culprit. He doesn't have much of a presence, and his motivations were lackluster at best. He does have one of my favorite quotes in the game, but regardless, not too strong. The twist with Date's body and identity works, but it's... a bit of a Phi Sigma situation where it recontextualizes a couple of things to be unfortunate, mostly Date and Iris pre-True having some less than tasteful moments. I also just find the twist to be too complicated for its own good, as well as having a couple of leaps of logic I didn't find too well executed. It really needs a lot of suspension of disbelief to work, and it... kind of, kind of doesn't work.
Side note, Uchikoshi's plot twist reuse isn't as present here as it is usually. At least, nothing really screamed at me that there was something from E17 used, barring maybe the body switching? IDK, not too important, didn't bother me. Nirvana Initiative seems worse with it lol.
The Somniums are interesting, but I never found them to work well as puzzles, and more as interesting interpretations of the characters. I usually just had a guide for most of them because I didn't want to struggle with how the timer works, and a lot of the answers felt either too easy, or too warped with the internal logic utilized. Regardless, cool concept, not too strong execution.
Which, that kind of summarizes my thoughts with AI? I felt affirmed that I can't consider Uchikoshi a good writer when his strongest concepts aren't done so well, when the issue doesn't lie with the direction, but with the raw text itself. It's hard to consider the final twist good when too much of the work is made to justify it, than it fitting naturally. And so, when everything seems strong and detailed by itself, the attempt to jam it in together makes it less than the sum of its part.
At the end of the day, it's not a fractal; it's an uneven jigsaw puzzle. But at least those singular pieces are good occasionally?
small edit because i forgot to put this in but the dance number ending is the best part of the game completely unironically
By all intents and purposes I should have really liked AI: The Somnium Files. By all intents and purposes I should be rating this 3.5 or 4. But I honestly cant.
The first half of playing this was great as I plowed through the various goings ons, following the murder mysteries and trying to make sense of who the culprit could be. Its fun piecing together the various strands and backstories to create this tapestry of whodunnit.
Then something happened, the game basically did a one two punch that made me just want to skip through to get to the ending.
What happened was hitting two endings. One ending that had some feel good moments but ultimately answered absolutely nothing before going 'WELP THATS ALL FOLKS' in my ear, leaving me feeling more confused than anything. Then one ending that pulled off the Nonary-Games style bullshit of halting a path because... well... actually that was the problem. There was no reason.
While Nonary games had a reason behind those path halts, this had no such good reason other than to drag out storylines. What then happened was a second set of plots that just felt nonsensical. While the first set of plots at least felt rooted in... SOMETHING. The second set of plots just went off on tangents, repeated information and generally mucked about. Whats worse is when you do unlock those paths, the 'why' of the paths unlocking is theorised about and dropped like a hot potato and never picked up properly.
This felt like a game that should have focused more on the core story rather than just putting in branching paths and dead-ends for no reason. Another problem came with the characters themselves. While at first a lot were interesting and had their moments, did we really need every character behaving like a horn dog? Did we really need to be 'Powered by porno mags?'.
I dunno. Overall its just a game that starts off very strong but by the end of it, I was just speeding through reams of nonsense dialogue to try and actually have the answer to what happened and when I did have the answer, it didnt even feel that good. What a crying shame.
The first half of playing this was great as I plowed through the various goings ons, following the murder mysteries and trying to make sense of who the culprit could be. Its fun piecing together the various strands and backstories to create this tapestry of whodunnit.
Then something happened, the game basically did a one two punch that made me just want to skip through to get to the ending.
What happened was hitting two endings. One ending that had some feel good moments but ultimately answered absolutely nothing before going 'WELP THATS ALL FOLKS' in my ear, leaving me feeling more confused than anything. Then one ending that pulled off the Nonary-Games style bullshit of halting a path because... well... actually that was the problem. There was no reason.
While Nonary games had a reason behind those path halts, this had no such good reason other than to drag out storylines. What then happened was a second set of plots that just felt nonsensical. While the first set of plots at least felt rooted in... SOMETHING. The second set of plots just went off on tangents, repeated information and generally mucked about. Whats worse is when you do unlock those paths, the 'why' of the paths unlocking is theorised about and dropped like a hot potato and never picked up properly.
This felt like a game that should have focused more on the core story rather than just putting in branching paths and dead-ends for no reason. Another problem came with the characters themselves. While at first a lot were interesting and had their moments, did we really need every character behaving like a horn dog? Did we really need to be 'Powered by porno mags?'.
I dunno. Overall its just a game that starts off very strong but by the end of it, I was just speeding through reams of nonsense dialogue to try and actually have the answer to what happened and when I did have the answer, it didnt even feel that good. What a crying shame.
kotaro uchikoshi is, depending on who you ask, either one of the greatest writers presently working in the point 'n' click/visual novel/puzzle adventure genre or a complete and total hack whose works are deranged balderdash rehashing the same twists and plot elements for the entirety of his career. i am here to say with confidence after having played his second-most recent work that i lean way more toward the former than i had after the insanely disappointing Zero Time Dilemma. ztd was a complete and total mess, crippled by the sheer weight of having to resolve the hanging plot threads of virtue's last reward compounded by a troubled production and at least in my opinion, the presence of multiple writers. while i still enjoyed ztd attempting to do the writing equivalent of eating a car, a task so herculean that even to try is engrossing, the game soured me on the series and the writer behind it. zero escape is an incredibly fascinating series, laden with as much occult and pseudoscientific narrative intrigue as it is genuinely strong character writing, and anyone who enjoyed all or some of them can easily hop into this without reading any further. ai the somnium files is uchikoshi doing what he does best while still feeling as fresh and new as 999 did when i first played it.
the plot starts simply enough, you are Kaname Date, a special kind of detective who can enter people's dreams with the help of his partner, a sentient ai implanted in his left eye socket. date is investigating the murder of his good friend's ex-wife, whose brutal murder included the removal of her left eyeball. from there the story weaves through multiple routes, some focused on specific people of interest he meets in his investigations while others tease deeper layers to the mystery at hand. uchikoshi deftly keeps the player guessing, and just when a revelation threatens to unravel the mystery, it only proves to go deeper than ever.
uchikoshi is incredibly good at writing nonlinear "puzzle box" narratives like these, and the detective angle makes it all the better. one half of the narrative involves the murder going serial, the killer thwarting date and AIBA at every step, while the other teases a similar twist to VLR only to pull the rug out from the player. like previous works, this complex narrative is buoyed by a great supporting cast, including the minecraft youtuber/conspiracy theorist/d-list idol Iris and mizuki, whose every action made me laugh out loud or tug at my heartstrings. the latter two ZE titles, i feel, struggled to have a cast as beloved as 999 but ai manages to match it with a great bunch of characters i couldnt get enough of.
the gameplay sections are divided into unequal chunks, primarily cut between the visual novel conversating and item examining and somnium, puzzles taking place in dreams where the player (mostly) assumes control of AIBA as she peels back the subject's psyche. the somniums, like the rooms in ZE, very hit and miss. for the first two thirds of the game they offer almost no challenge besides figuring out the predetermined right path to solve them, and the more clever twists on them in the back handful of somniums feel too little and too late. they never frustrated me but they also never felt engaging beyond watching AIBA do funny things or learning more about the characters. this is definitely an improvement over past works, god fuck the bomb puzzle in ZTD and the dice puzzle in VLR, but i still think "not making me actively upset" isn't an impressive bar to clear.
i dont wanna dive too deep into spoiling the game because that kinda kills the fun of an uchikoshi game. but i will say this one had the most satisfying ending since 999. the trademark "brain melting" twists are here, but they feel far more earned and far less integral to the enjoyment as opposed to zero escape. by the end i felt like the mystery was set up and executed in a really satisfying way and left room to play around in this world, but more importantly it left me wanting more. i was skeptical about this title for a long time, and im glad the sequel finally pushed me to play it. uchikoshi is brilliant, and i really am so happy to see him have his own studio with kodaka where the two can experiment and take risks and make cool shit. i may never forgive him for the twist in ztd about phi, but i have to respect him as a Player.
the plot starts simply enough, you are Kaname Date, a special kind of detective who can enter people's dreams with the help of his partner, a sentient ai implanted in his left eye socket. date is investigating the murder of his good friend's ex-wife, whose brutal murder included the removal of her left eyeball. from there the story weaves through multiple routes, some focused on specific people of interest he meets in his investigations while others tease deeper layers to the mystery at hand. uchikoshi deftly keeps the player guessing, and just when a revelation threatens to unravel the mystery, it only proves to go deeper than ever.
uchikoshi is incredibly good at writing nonlinear "puzzle box" narratives like these, and the detective angle makes it all the better. one half of the narrative involves the murder going serial, the killer thwarting date and AIBA at every step, while the other teases a similar twist to VLR only to pull the rug out from the player. like previous works, this complex narrative is buoyed by a great supporting cast, including the minecraft youtuber/conspiracy theorist/d-list idol Iris and mizuki, whose every action made me laugh out loud or tug at my heartstrings. the latter two ZE titles, i feel, struggled to have a cast as beloved as 999 but ai manages to match it with a great bunch of characters i couldnt get enough of.
the gameplay sections are divided into unequal chunks, primarily cut between the visual novel conversating and item examining and somnium, puzzles taking place in dreams where the player (mostly) assumes control of AIBA as she peels back the subject's psyche. the somniums, like the rooms in ZE, very hit and miss. for the first two thirds of the game they offer almost no challenge besides figuring out the predetermined right path to solve them, and the more clever twists on them in the back handful of somniums feel too little and too late. they never frustrated me but they also never felt engaging beyond watching AIBA do funny things or learning more about the characters. this is definitely an improvement over past works, god fuck the bomb puzzle in ZTD and the dice puzzle in VLR, but i still think "not making me actively upset" isn't an impressive bar to clear.
i dont wanna dive too deep into spoiling the game because that kinda kills the fun of an uchikoshi game. but i will say this one had the most satisfying ending since 999. the trademark "brain melting" twists are here, but they feel far more earned and far less integral to the enjoyment as opposed to zero escape. by the end i felt like the mystery was set up and executed in a really satisfying way and left room to play around in this world, but more importantly it left me wanting more. i was skeptical about this title for a long time, and im glad the sequel finally pushed me to play it. uchikoshi is brilliant, and i really am so happy to see him have his own studio with kodaka where the two can experiment and take risks and make cool shit. i may never forgive him for the twist in ztd about phi, but i have to respect him as a Player.
Date's a funny guy
The Kaname Date Cringe Compilation
I don't quite like saying numerical ratings for my thoughts on media, its just kind of silly, and it doesn't quite reflect my thoughts as much as I'd like to. I say this because AI is like, the definitive 8/10 experience. It is just such a fun and unique experience, made by actual insane person Kotaro Uchikoshi. After the Zero Escape series, this feels like such a fresh start, having a more character focused drama, and ditching the more psuedo-intellectual insanity of his previous hit (though i do quite like those games) was a smart move, and putting his more puzzle oriented formula into this police mystery / dream wandering experience is just so unique.
I honestly don't have too much to offer in terms of insight. It is great seeing Yusuke Kozaki still making some of the best character designs, it made me laugh more than a handful of times, Date is just such a great vessel for one of these types of games, just being able to embrace what a fucking loser he is. It is a great game, I'm curious to see what the sequel does with it afterwards, I'm still kinda bewildered it got one, but hey, if niche shit like this gets to be big, I will not complain.
I honestly don't have too much to offer in terms of insight. It is great seeing Yusuke Kozaki still making some of the best character designs, it made me laugh more than a handful of times, Date is just such a great vessel for one of these types of games, just being able to embrace what a fucking loser he is. It is a great game, I'm curious to see what the sequel does with it afterwards, I'm still kinda bewildered it got one, but hey, if niche shit like this gets to be big, I will not complain.
I just finished watching wingupingu play the game after having first played it myself over a year ago, and he posted some thoughts here himself, go check it out. I liked AI when I first played it, but I also found it to be somewhat overhyped and this watch confirmed it to me. Don’t get me wrong, I think there’s some incredibly witty writing and it still evoked plenty of laughs from me the second time around, and I continue to appreciate the themes of familial love presented in Ota’s and Mizuki’s routes. The final Somnium in Ota’s route is probably the most vivid memory of the game I’ve had for its emotional impact and it still got me worked up, although it didn’t help that it tied into a personal experience I had earlier this year.
On the other hand, Iris may be entertaining as a character, but I found her actual relevance to the plot kind of weak. I know people like to meme on that one guy who review-bombed the game for all the bad stuff that happens to Iris, but she really does lack agency for the main heroine and there’s a few parts of her suffering that seem pretty tangential to the main plot, existing mainly to prompt pity. Apparently her mother Hitomi was originally written to be the main heroine until she was swapped out for Iris, and you can really feel the struggle to justify Iris having a large role despite not having much direct involvement with the actual plot.
The true ending also kind of drags due to an abundance of flashbacks. I actually really do like a few emotional scenes during the true end route, but it does get drowned out by some contrived plot twists. AI tries a little too hard to make a happy ending as possible for everybody involved, and while I wouldn’t say it’s tonally incoherent with the lighthearted sections from earlier in the game, it does cause some stuff to lose impact.
This probably makes it sound like I dislike AI when I really don’t. I don’t think it’s wrong for a game like AI to be easily digestible and more focused on making the player smile than being difficult to decipher or thematically dense. But I’ve also seen enough people gush on the positive sides of this game that I don’t feel the need to join the choir, rather addressing some of the shortcomings I don’t really see people talk about as much. It’s a fun time, just don’t let the hype overtake you.
On the other hand, Iris may be entertaining as a character, but I found her actual relevance to the plot kind of weak. I know people like to meme on that one guy who review-bombed the game for all the bad stuff that happens to Iris, but she really does lack agency for the main heroine and there’s a few parts of her suffering that seem pretty tangential to the main plot, existing mainly to prompt pity. Apparently her mother Hitomi was originally written to be the main heroine until she was swapped out for Iris, and you can really feel the struggle to justify Iris having a large role despite not having much direct involvement with the actual plot.
The true ending also kind of drags due to an abundance of flashbacks. I actually really do like a few emotional scenes during the true end route, but it does get drowned out by some contrived plot twists. AI tries a little too hard to make a happy ending as possible for everybody involved, and while I wouldn’t say it’s tonally incoherent with the lighthearted sections from earlier in the game, it does cause some stuff to lose impact.
This probably makes it sound like I dislike AI when I really don’t. I don’t think it’s wrong for a game like AI to be easily digestible and more focused on making the player smile than being difficult to decipher or thematically dense. But I’ve also seen enough people gush on the positive sides of this game that I don’t feel the need to join the choir, rather addressing some of the shortcomings I don’t really see people talk about as much. It’s a fun time, just don’t let the hype overtake you.